Let me ask you a question: it’s an embarrassing question but here in the church is the place we can say anything... Are you a pessimist or an optimist? Maybe the person who sit closest to you, and who know you the best, can answer the best. None of us like to be labeled as pessimist, right?
And yet I discovered both, optimist and pessimist are necessary to make the world that we live in, a better place, both of them. The optimist invents the airplane ( I can fly, you’ll see!…), and the pessimist invents the parachute… You know, these things are together, I don’t want one without other.
The optimist said: “My cup runs over, what a blessing!” The pessimist said “My cup runs over: what a mess!” We need both… And you know: most times the pessimist and the optimist are right. Both of them are right.
The difference is that the optimist tries to say: is a lot more enjoyment in life with less pain. That seems to be the basic message of Ecclesiastis. Eccles-what?: what is that? Some of young people over here don’t know… Is another social network like Facebook? It’s the name of a town in Europe somewhere? Or a book in the Bible? Is a, b, or c? Yes, is a book in the middle of the Bible. I would like to encourage you to open this book.
What the book is! When you read Ecclesiastes, you can very easily come to the conclusion at so many other people come to: it is the most pessimistic gloomy book in the Bible. And this why most church people don’t read it.
Maybe once in the lifetime, gladly not again. Only some verses for the sake of proving the state of the dead doctrine. So let go to the beginning and see what we talking about.
Ec.1:1 READ. Meaningless 3 times! Sounds like someone is very depressed and needs a psychiatrist. Everything is meaningless. It’s a pretty negative statement. Pessimistic. Sounds so bad.
I mean you cannot find many book in the Bible and book anywhere like Ecclesiastes. That’s can be pessimistic fellows, and hope to get some lift out of that.
And the basic concept of the word “meaningless” (not vanity in other versions) as use by Solomon in this book is the statement that everything in life is an illusion. Everything is a fake. Nothing is real, nothing making sense, and everything that to touch value to, is a delusion.
That is talking about when it’s said “everything is meaningless”. So who on earth is going to enjoy life when they come to the conclusion that everything in life is meaningless? Does no make sense!
Life is nothing that one big fake. How is possible to enjoy life like that? That will make earth nothing more than a Mud Ville. And it’s no joy in Mud Ville.
Is that what God try to tell us in this book, Ecclesiastes? In the middle of His Holy Word? That’s the impression that you get? Is that the message of God trough this book?
The idea of meaninglessness, of vanity, is not statues once in this book. The author starts of that way and goes on and he says many-many times getting right down to chapter 12:8, almost the end of the book. He states again, word for word… all the way trough and several times, making this point: life is meaningless. That’s what he says.
And wasn’t Solomon anointing to be a wise king? So, let’s look at it: in the beginning, in the middle, at the end of the book: everything in life is meaningless. And not just life but I tell you what I mean by that. And Solomon emphasis this idea: wisdom is meaningless. Ecc.1.17 READ.
Deep… “Chasing after the wind” (remember Bob Dylan, blowing in the wind). Well, how many of you believe that? If it was not in the Bible, you might not be willing to believe that. Wisdom is meaningless. So wisdom is meaningless.
And he doesn’t stop here. He goes on and said: “Pleasure is meaningless”. You want to follow this in the Bible? Ch. 2:4-11 READ. Projects = pleasure, flocks = Cadillacs. Oho, blasphemy! Solomon said without any shame, with serenity: “I had everything a man (sinful man!) could desire”! But… meaningless.
Solomon said: wisdom is meaningless, pleasure is meaningless, what is left? A career is meaningless. Ecc.2.17-18 READ. And so, the less work you will do, the better you are.. Because all the work you do, everything you built up, sweat for, labor for, is meaningless. Poor guy, can you help him a little bit?
So wisdom is meaningless, pleasure is meaningless, career is meaningless, everything, even reaches and wealth is meaningless. Read that, chapter 5:10 READ.
So what’s left? Is every joy in the life left? If you take all this things, what’s left? If is nothing in wisdom, in pleasure, all the pleasure a man could desire, if is no meaning in pleasure, no meaning in career, if is no meaning in wealth, what’s left?
“Wait a minute – may somebodysay - one thing is left out, the thing you suppose to enjoy as believers in God, the only legitimate thing, the only who is OK for Bible believers, is religion. Sorry, Solomon put his heavy thumb on that as well. You want to read that? Ch.7.20 READ.
After all his life, looking back in Israel history, looking around him, at the priests, the hierarchy, the elders, at everyone belonging to God’s people, he comes to the conclusion that is nobody right on earth. All are sinners.
Well, how can you enjoy religion if everything you try in order to be better, is against you? You sinning all the time… you struggle, and try and try again. But you get trapped in the circle of sin that keeps coming up, making your religions such a drag.
And Solomon says: you know what? Even religion just does not cut it; I even find joy in religion anymore because all I have is to fight with my nature, with my sinful nature. Is so much sin pounding at the front-door of my heart and I cannot help to be a righteous man.
So, religion is meaningless. And guess what folks? The most miserable people you and I know are the most religious people in the world. (In the Greek-orthodox calendar… every day is dedicated to a holy person, and some monks try hard to observe ALL the stuff they look so miserable…)
Ah, I wish that wasn’t true. But Solomon said: EVERYTHING. However… some Christians actually believe if you become a Christian and a follower of God - that is the end of the joy on this earth. You get a way until you get caught in a church somewhere, where you get “salvation” but you get not joy… And so on this earth you just have to saddle for.
And here you are with any pleasure at all, without any fun, without any joy of all… And the more Christian you become, the less enjoyment you suppose to have in life. If you dare to be happy, your spirituality will be throwed away to window.
I find this idea pretty clear in some circles of Christians (not here of course) that joy and salvation are opposite concepts. Is that what God wants us to believe when let Ecclesiastes as a book of the Bible?
It may looks like that for a superficial reader, but I have some good news for you and for me! Solomon is not saying this at all! What “Try that, done this, been there” man is saying when he talks about those things that are meaningless, is that we all have a born tendency to get our greatest kicks in life by acquiring wisdom as an advanced education.
By acquiring wisdom, and pleasure as a toy. And really estate and hobbies and relationships that when we want to get our greatest kicks in life out of our carrier, out of our riches, out of our religion… And Solomon is saying that’s what we tend to live for. That’s the problem, that’s why is meaningless!
But let’s face it, that’s what the world is crazy about. The world around us is crazy to get an advanced education, to get all the awards paper work behind… to get a better job, a career, the world is crazy about riches and wealth… the world is crazy even about religion!
Oh, yeas, and the proof of that is: most people in the world are not atheist, they are religious people. And the people who don’t believe in Christ, who don’t believe in the God of the Bible, as you I do, they are more religious than the Christians are. The Muslims and Buddhists
Let’s be honest for one moment and say: that’s the way it is in the church as well… It is, folks! Is in the church as well. You show me some Christians. No matter how good they are, secretly in the heart, doesn’t get a huge thrill when they get a 4.0 Lexus brand new?
You show me the Christian that does not get a huge thrill in the heart: I mean that is the life! You show me the Christian that isn’t really turn on when he is promoted to be a vice-president of the Company. I mean Ah, the heart goes BOOM…
You show me the person that isn’t really full of joy when he get 7 percent salary raise. Is the time for a celebration. You show me the Christian who dos not really fill good to know that “my religion is the right religion”! So in the church, the big thing in the mind of most of us is really so often: we get out, kicks, get out froze, out of… this things!
Pleasure, career, wealth… religion. That is it. And you say: How can you prove that? I would like to suggest that you just listen to a conversation that we have with one another; that most of the conversation topics are on this four things instead of an spirituality, instead of relationship with God. That is an interesting thing!
ILL. Working in Village I discovered two car stickers: I love my wife and I love Jesus. I love to my wife but I have not any kind of sticker on the trunk of my van. And I love Jesus… I asked for the owner: well, are you a full committed Christian? Oh, me to, let’s talk… Well, it’s nothing special to debate… And of course, the stickers was four years old…
That is the way it is… No, is not this way with me, is with people who never experienced any of this things. When I was in high school I looked at the guys in my class: they got straight eyes. And I said myself: what a drag, get a life, you guys must to be the most miserable people in the world. Guess what: I never got straight eyes. So I could say that about them. Yeah.
You so friends, hey, let’s no full ourselves and think full committed Christians are exempt for looking for thrills in those things that Solomon said are meaningless? That us!… Not to look to the world…. That’s us! I must make this very clear to you, please, if at this point you have misunderstood me, now is the time to correct that misunderstanding.
Throughout this whole book that Solomon is written, he does not say that it is sinful or evil to persuade wisdom. And pleasure, And an career. And wealth. And religion. He dos not say it is wrong to persuade those things. This is not his point! The problem is, he said: is that: we put to much energy into obtaining thrills from such things.
And takes a lifetime for so many people, Christians and non-Christians, a lifetime to discover that after they lived over whole their lives, they still haven’t acheeve real satisfaction because they left out that which is most important.
And when the energy is spent, they come to the horrible conclusion, that life is lost at zip. Their souls empty. And they don’t have anything to go on with. In the new life such they goone…when Jesus comes. And everything, including themselves, is plastic. Fake. Is no joy in Mud-Ville.
Secularism. One of the definition of secularism is: to persuade meaningless things that have to look for meaning in meaningless things; who don’t have any meaning in themselves, by themselves…
Looking for meaning in something that can not give me meaning: that is secularism, as one particular person put it. And the tragic truth about so many people is that: secularism. Lives them, eventually filling cheap, commercial, dull, bored and machine like.
Carpe diem! Catch the moment, live… Must to find the meaning of this life somewhere on the way, before the end of the way when: STOP! Chasing after dreams, chasing after achievements and prosperity, chasing after pleasure, as a tendency to live us filling empty and deprived of meaning.
You know why? It’s because it’s eclipses the view of God. And when God is eclipsed from our view, our Universe turns pretty silent. And we humans have this in your filling of empty-ness, holiness-less, meaninglessness, as Solomon said. That’s it!
O, we don’t push God out; we don’t say hey, I am persuading all this things and they have nothing to do with God. No, but you know, we are constructed for Him. We set a little corner somewhere designed just to fit God.
So He is there, but He should not interfere with my higher pursuits of finding meaning in things like wisdom, pleasure, career, prosperity and religion. God is like a bumper sticker of my life-machine. Oh yeah, He is there and we don’t throw Him out! But we make Him powerless….
Doing that simply lives us in the very same spot as those who throw God out completely and have no room for Him, because God says: “I am Lord of all or I am Lord not at all”. What’s the God said!
He is kind of picky, is He? He want us all! And if our life is empty, is because we put it in a corner somewhere, by the agony, the dread, the nothing-ness and this is worse than anything else you can imagine, because is NO JOY IN MUD VILLE.
OK. That is enough pessimism. Stop. I am to tired of that… Let’s go the good stuff in this book. Let’s explore the other side of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes said: I’ve got good news for you. Are you ready for it? Ecclesiastes is the best news for people who fill empty, modern people. It is the book for people who want to live again, now and live again for ever. That’s the book it is.
It’s a book who have answers for a boring with a routine of a joy-less job and eating and drinking and just going trough the some thing: living from pay-check to pay-check. Ecclesiastes has a better life to offer.
The book satisfies the thinking of people confronted whit some questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What’s the meaning of life? Should I be wilder than thou, or holier then thou? Answers to those questions…
Is another alternative that simultaneously can bring a life fulfillment and honoring God? Is a certain way where I can find joy in wisdom, in pleasure, career, prosperity or wealth and religion, and in the same time, have my life centered on God? Can I have that?
The Book of Ecclesiastes has an answer for that. The Holy Spirit entrusted this man, Solomon, with answers to such questions, answers that people looking for, struggling for, for centuries and millenniums. Ecclesiastes has a message desperately needed today.
This book offers the Good News to people, church people or non-church people, who look for the solutions to life’s problems in paganism, yoga, wickka, Dalai Lama, scientology, UFO’s…
Some people will find Ecclesiastes a book of pessimism and doubt, but no, here is something very excited, a really experience of cheerful purpose and enjoyment of life as a gift from God.
Please, just one half hour next week, pick up this book and read it. Think about this underline message of hope, of joy, of meaning.
Right now I want to skip the reasoning that Solomon uses. Let’s reserve this to the doctors in theology …We started with “everything is meaningless”… and it ends up with the solutions. Actually talk about solution all away through and ends with something marvelous.
He said: wisdom, pleasure, work, wealth and religion. All this – he said – comes as a gift from God. And all have a honorable purpose who cannot be detached from God. Wisdom, pleasure, work, wealth, and religion, things the we humans are chasing after – there is an enjoyment in pursuing them. But that enjoyment can only be found when they are attached to God.
You can see the difference? You keep God in full view; you live really just for God. The unique reason for living is God. And all this things become pleasing and enjoyable rather then a defilement, or a distraction, or a curse.Mat.6:33 READ. Watch your priorities!
God in full view and the real purpose for living is God. Then all those things falling to place, becoming meaningful, and then becoming an enjoyment; not illegitimate or dishonest or unlawful, but they become something satisfying.
Solomon described this experience, you know… keeping God in full view.
Ecc.2:24-25 READ. Apart from God is only chasing after the wind… Meaning is only found in been close to God. (Repeat). Wake-up with this truth in mind, in the morning, go with it trough the day: meaning is only to be found in been close to God.
And in vers 26 - to the man who to pleases God, “God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy…”
And you know, chapter 12: “Remember your Creator now while you are young…. until the difficult days come and the white years when you will say: I have no pleasure in them… Because my whole life is a pursuit of meaningless-ness. Remember your Creator that won’t happen.
And in vers 13 he puts the cherry on the cake: READ. Somehow friends, this is what been a whole person means, this is what we are made for. Fear God, keep his commandments.
Of course, to fear God does not mean to be terrified of God, not at all, It is a catch-all phrase that means far more than what is seams on the surface. It is saying that the only ,.. joy and meaning is to fear God witch is totally compatible with the Gospel of free grace trough Jesus Christ. Is an idea so misunderstood today, empty of his reachesness.
According to Ecclesiastes, a pessimist is a person who make his life to pursuit wisdom, pleasure, a career, reaches, and religion, without God. Or perhaps just acting as if they are religious, but rejecting the power that could make them godly (2 Tim 3:5). A pessimistic view – a wasted life, a life without a genuine relationship with God.
And an optimist, according to Solomon, is the person who pursuit not merely wisdom, but because God is in full view in his mind, he is not pursuit jus wisdom, but the knowledge of God witch is wisdom…
He does not just pursuiing pleasure, but he pursuit to be at the right hand of God were they are pleasures for evermore. He does not just pursuing a career, but he makes God his occupation, his vocation.
He is not interesting in just wealth but to him God is his precious gold and silver (Job 22:25). He does not just pursuing religion, he seeks God who is the way, the truth and the life…
So, be optimist because you get the greatest joy in life, when you are strongly attached not in kind of things who absorb the mind and the time so much, but focus on God… And all other thinks (how many? ALL) will be added unto you, and me, according to His promises. All: wisdom, pleasure, career, family, financial stability, eternal life…
The words joy and joy-full is actually found 17 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. Is the most optimistic book in the Bible virtually... Is a book of joy. Teaching us how to find real joy. Friendship. When you make your friend God, happy, you will be happy also.
I ask you today. Have you chosen Jesus to be the joy of your life? You can. It is your decision. And Jesus said: “When you get my, you get everything: you get wisdom, pleasure in life, you get a good career, you get all those things, and eternal life. For ever… Focus on Me”… Do you want to make Jesus number one in life? I invite you right now...
